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A survey of farm information management and precision farming systems in Europe

Geofarmatics, International Conference, 24th-26th November 2010

Søren Marcus Pedersen, Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen

Co authorsLartey Lawson, and Inger Marie Kirketerp, University of CopenhagenClaus Grøn Sørensen and Frank W. Oudshoorn, Aarhus UniversityLiisa Pesonen, MTT Agrifood Research, Finland Spyros Fountas, Thanos Chatzinikos and Simon Blackmore, University of Thessaly, GreeceLuzia Herold and Armin Werner (D) Leibniz-Centre for Landscape Research (ZALF)

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Contents

• Future Farm

• About the survey

• Demographics

• Results

• Summary

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FUTURE FARM - WP5- Socio-economics and technology assessment

The main objective of this work package is to assess the economic and environmental impact on:

farm level and regional impact from implementation of information intensive management systems (incl. precision farming)

- to assess the adoption and perception among users and stakeholders (farm survey)

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About the survey

The survey has been carried out in autumn 2009 in the following countries: Greece, Germany, Finland and Denmark with respectively 75, 74, 78 and 182 respondents.

In Denmark, 400 questionnaires were posted and distributed among Danish farmers. In Finland, a similar number of questionnaires were posted to Finish farmers combined with the possibility to upload answers on a web-site. In Germany and Greece farmers were mostly approached with personal interviews.

The objective was to assess farmers’ perception of farm information management systems and to estimate the time farmers spend on office related tasks and administrative tasks.

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Figure 1. Percent of respondents by age group across countries

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Farm activities, pct

Germany

Denmark

Finland

Greece All

Crops 100.0 90.2 87.2 97.3 92.7

Hog 23.7 28.8 3.8 0.0 17.9

Beef 26.3 12.5 28.2 0.0 15.7

Dairy 25.0 21.7 24.4 1.3 19.1

Other 18.4 19.0 7.7 9.3 15.0

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Percentage distribution of agricultural land by size across countries

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Crops

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Number of field staff and yearly employed seasonal/part-time workers.

Field staff Seasonal/part time

 CountryFarm units Mean Std. Max.

Mean Std. Max.

Germany 74 7 16 1129 47 400

Denmark 182 2 2 161 3 40

Greece 75 2 4 253 4 20

Finland 78 1 1 30 1 2

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Average hours spend on office tasks

20 hours pr. week spent by German respondents

7, 3 and 1 hours pr. week respectively for Danish Finnish and Greek.

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Allocations of office time budget for administrative activities in %

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Out of office time budget time allocated to agricultural related activities in percent

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Percentage distribution of the use of automated systems

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Use of automated systems, percent

Country Germany Denmark FinlandRobotic milking systemYes 3 8 8Yes/number of dairy farms 11 38 32Automated feeding system      Yes 18 28 10Yes/pigs 78 98 267Yes/Livestock 33 50 32Grain-drying system      Yes 14 16 23Yes/crops 14 17 26Labelling system      Yes 3 1 4Field tractor/combine-harvester auto guidance system  Yes 32 9 4Yes/number of crop farms 32 10 4

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Common brands used

Popular brands are DeLaval and Lely Astrounaut in Germany and Denmark.

The common brands for feeding systems are Big Dutchman, DeLaval, SKOV etc.

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Use of precision farming systems, percent

Denmark Germany Finland

Grid soil sampling 14.47 5.43 0Directed, management zone soil sampling 5.26 1.09 1.28

Yield monitoring, without GPS 7.89 2.72 0

Yield monitoring 11.84 2.72 1.28

Aerial photography 10.53 1.09 0

Variable rate fertilizer application 7.89 3.80 2.56

Variable rate lime application 3.95 4.89 0

Variable rate pesticide application 3.95 2.72 1.28Soil elevation/topography/conductivity mapping 1.32 1.09 0

Others 1.32 0.54 0

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Percent of farms using GPS and Auto guiding across countries

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Diffusion of precision farming - Factors that may have an impact (survey in 2001)

Yield potentials and savingsInterdependency between technologies (compatibility)Specific technical problemsOrganisational environmentCompeting technologiesTime for arable production versus animal production

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Summary

• Several PF systems have been available among farmers for the last 10 years

• Farmers have adopted a number of advanced and automated systems for field planning and livestock management systems on their farmsincl. Automated Milking Systems, automated feeding systems and field planning/precision farming systems

• Farmers are still reluctant to encourage others to use PF systems

• There is a potential to reduce the labour time spend on administrative tasks